Nelson Weekly Your Community Newspaper
Tuesday 5 March 2013
Support growing for sign language
Festival returns in style
Page 14-15
Open Friday 8 March
Page 8 Furniture maker Peter Thwaites drives his converted dining table boat through Lake Rotoiti at the New Zealand Antique and Classic Boat Show on Saturday. Photo: Phillip Rollo.
Page 20
Turning the tables on classic boat show They came to see finely crafted skiffs, beautifully restored steamboats, classic runabouts and jet boats in their original condition – but no one, not even the organisers expected to see a dining table mounted with an outboard motor. Peter Thwaites, a Blenheim furniture maker, stunned the large crowd at the 14th New Zealand Antique and Classic Boat Show at Lake Rotoiti over the weekend when he unveiled his converted table-boat and then took it for a spin in the Seagull race. Peter says the idea was a “moment of weakness” and came years after seeing a similar concept on the internet. “We decided to do something a bit crazy. That’s how it started and it evolved from there, adding more horsepower until it got really dodgy. It’s a classic design from centuries ago – it’s a table.”
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Drink driver shocks local couple A local couple say they were shocked when told by Nelson police that there was nothing wrong with a man drinking from a bottle of beer while driving. The couple say they were leaving a Nelson supermarket when they noticed a man getting into the driver’s seat of a car with an open bottle of beer. One of the concerned citizens approached the man and told him
Andrew Board Editor
andrew@nelsonweekly.co.nz what he was doing was illegal and that he would call the police if he didn’t stop. They say the man drove off laughing. But the couple, who didn’t want to be
named, were stunned when told by Nelson police that it wasn’t illegal to drink and drive, only if the driver was over the legal limit and they weren’t interested in the car information they had collected. Tasman District road policing manager, Inspector Jenni Richardson says under the law it is not illegal for a driver over 20 years of age to drink while driving a motor ve-
hicle, provided they do not exceed the legal limit. But drivers under 20 years of age must adhere to a zero alcohol limit. “While it is not illegal, police do not encourage people to drink alcohol while driving. If an officer witnessed, or was made aware of, a person drinking while
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